Mikel Brown Jr. won't be among Louisville basketball's all-time greats
· Yahoo Sports
Mikel Brown Jr. is one of the greatest basketball talents to ever play for Louisville and should be the first top 10 NBA Draft pick the Cardinals have had since Samaki Walker went ninth overall in 1996.
Yet Brown won’t be revered as a UofL legend and his lone season won’t be remembered very fondly.
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At this point, it’s fair to wonder if he’ll be loved as a Cardinal at all.
Brown officially declared on Tuesday he’ll enter the draft after his freshman season at UofL. That much was expected from the moment he committed and became the Cards’ highest ranked recruit since Samardo Samuels in 2008.
What could not be anticipated was the back injury that made him miss a total of 14 games and the backlash that followed for him missing said games.
It’s almost like college players getting paid has ruined college basketball. Just not in the way that you think.
Players making money has led to a sense of entitlement from fans who feel like the players owe them something more.
I get it, many schools are asking the average fan for more in terms of a bigger donation for the right to purchase seats or just increasing the amount for season tickets in the infinite pursuit to generate more revenue.
All players owe is their effort, but that apparently wasn’t enough for Brown.
The rumblings began when Brown was out for eight games from Dec. 16 to Jan. 17. A lack of transparency from UofL and or Brown’s camp of the seriousness of the injury led fans to speculate that he wasn’t coming back. That he was taking whatever undisclosed amount he was making and shutting down his season to prepare for the NBA.
There was no truth to the rumors, but with money involved and not enough information to update his status, people filled in the blanks on their own and expected the absolute worst.
It’s for sure not just a UofL problem. The same rang true in a couple of high profile places like Darryn Peterson at Kansas, as he worked through cramping and hamstring problems; and Jayden Quaintance at Kentucky, as he tried to come back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
When he was Brown, he was special.
Brown, who averaged 18.2 points and 4.7 assists, started off the season with a pretty big statement, torching Kentucky for 29 points as the Cards won for the first time in that series since 2021.
And when he lit up N.C State for 45 points to tie Wes Unseld for the most points in a single game in program history, it felt like Brown was going to reach his potential and the Cards were destined to be a factor in March.
When Brown re-aggravated his back, the postseason tournaments came and went.
No Mikel.
By missing the Cards' final six games, his name disintegrated from being etched among the UofL greats.
This column will be updated.
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Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mikel Brown Jr. in NBA draft with lacking Louisville basketball legacy